President Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Thanksgiving in October 1863, which is well known for setting the precedent of our national holiday. Since 1863, we have celebrated Thanksgiving every year as a nation.

Another Proclamation of Thanksgiving was issued a year later by President Lincoln. October 1864 was a pivotal time during the Civil War. Atlanta had fallen to General Sherman a month before and Lincoln was not yet reelected.

Portion of page 1 of Lincoln’s 1864 Proclamation of Thanksgiving

The 1864 Proclamation begins, “It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year…”

Portion of page 1 of Lincoln’s 1864 Proclamation of Thanksgiving

On page 4 of the Proclamation, Lincoln states, “And I do farther recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of Peace, Union, and Harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.”

Portion of page 4 of Lincoln’s 1864 Proclamation of Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to view the original pages of the Proclamation and read the complete text (both below).

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of Freedom and Humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions.

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, hereby, appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day, which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens wherever they may then be as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty God the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do farther recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of Peace, Union and Harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty four, and, of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

Abraham Lincoln

By the President:
William H Seward, Secretary of State

For More Information:

Presidential Proclamation 118 (Thanksgiving 1864); Presidential Proclamations, compiled 1781-2007; General Records of the United States Government, 1778-2006, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Series description available on ARC at http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=299955.